More transparency is needed to help keep healthcare costs in check for seniors

May 04, 2017

Medicare was created in 1966 as a promise to protect our seniors. But the security of aging Americans is increasingly threatened.

Here’s how Medicare Part D is supposed to work: seniors go to the pharmacy of their choosing, exchange their co-pay for medications, and pay a monthly premium toward a Part D insurance plan that is administered by a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). Unfortunately, big PBMs — the private insurers who sell Medicare Part D plans to seniors — are rigging the system by imposing unfair “direct and indirect remuneration fees,” or DIR fees.